The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has announced that they have received enough petitions to reach the congressionally mandated 65,000 H-1B visa regular cap and the 20,000 H-1B visa U.S. advanced degree exception, known as the master’s cap, for Fiscal Year 2026.
In March, for FY 2026 USCIS received approximately 343,981 total eligible H-1B cap registrations. Of these registrations, USCIS selected 120,141 registrations to reach the annual H-1B quota of 85,000. The number of eligible registrations for FY 2026 (343,981) was dramatically lower as compared with FY 2025 (470,342), a 26.9% reduction. Additionally, the number of eligible unique beneficiaries this year for FY 2026 (approximately 339,000) was significantly lower than the number for FY 2025 (approximately 442,000).
USCIS attributes these reductions to the beneficiary-centric registration system and in part to other H-1B cap enforcement efforts such as fraud investigations, petition denials and revocations, and referrals for criminal prosecution.
This announcement means that USCIS will not conduct a second H-1B cap lottery for FY 2026. USCIS will continue to accept and process H-1B petitions that are not subject to the cap including extensions of stay, changes of employer, amended petitions, and employment that is exempt from the annual quota.
Registrations that were not selected in the FY 2026 lottery should be updated in the USCIS system within the coming days and it is expected that USCIS will send non-selection notices to employers and their immigration counsel through their online accounts.
For a deeper discussion on the above, please reach out to your Vialto Partners point of contact, or alternatively:
Manish Daftari
Partner
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